In Brazil, Scathing Criticism For the Departing President

By JAMES BROOKE, Special to The New York Times

Published: March 13, 1990

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 12—
One day this month, President Jose Sarney gave an old political ally a unusual birthday present: the chance to be president of Brazil for a day.

Mr. Sarney and his constitutional successor traveled together to Uruguay, allowing the third in line, the president of the Senate, to become acting president of Brazil. For a day, the Senate President, Nelson Carneiro, signed decrees and posed for photographs with his wife, Carmen, who played first lady.

Along with most of Mr. Sarney's acts and speeches in recent months, the birthday present was largely ignored by Brazil's hostile press and by Brazil's numbed public.

As Mr. Sarney prepares to leave office with the inauguration on Thursday of Fernando Collor de Mello, Mr. Sarney's five-year term is the subject of scathing criticism here.

Sarney Came In Last

Mr. Sarney's abyssmal image helps to explain why Brazilians are rallying behind Mr. Collor, who was elected last December with 53 percent of the vote.

Last month, the Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion asked 3,650 repondents their opinion of 17 institutions and 2 individuals. Mr. Sarney scored lowest, with a 14 percent approval rating. Mr. Collor came in third, with 68 percent, behind ''the church'' and ''polling institutes.''

The conservative Sao Paulo newspaper, O Estado de Sao Paulo, recently said that ''the country is learning the size of the mess that a living-dead President can create, especially when advised by sharp courtiers.''

For many Brazilians, Mr. Sarney's biggest failure has been the economy. In 1985, when he took office, Brazil's yearly inflation rate was 225 percent. Last year, it was 1,765 percent. Four Finance Ministers While in office, Mr. Sarney created two new currencies, the cruzado and then the cruzado novo. Unhappy with the results, he changed his Finance Minister four times.

Unable to control congress, the President, a former congressional leader, sought to win friends by employing congressmen's friends and relatives. He increased the federal payroll by almost 30 percent, adding 140,000 employees.

With foreign credit tight, few new building projects were started. A major exception was a $2.5 billion railroad, which is to run the length of Mr. Sarney's home state, Maranhao.

After demonstrators attacked a bus carrying the President here in mid-1987, he largely limited his public appearances in Brazil. But he traveled overseas 34 times, visiting Argentina six times and Uruguay six. Among business conducted, Mr. Sarney often promoted foreign language translations of his poetry.

For many Brazilians, the most memorable trip came last July when Mr. Sarney filled three planes with friends, relatives and political allies and flew to Paris to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.

In his defense, Mr. Sarney recently gave two lengthy speeches. Brazilian newspapers largely ignored them. In one delivered last Thursday, Mr. Sarney, a longtime political ally of Brazil's military, took credit for making Brazil ''the world's third largest democracy.'' Mr. Sarney also claimed that during his presidency, Brazil's gross national product increased 25 percent and that its foreign debt decreased 20 percent. Independent economists say these claims are exaggerated.